Category Archives: Telecommunications industry

Almost 6m UK households ‘struggling to pay telecoms bills’

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Which? says people are cutting food and clothes spending to pay for mobile, broadband and landline

Almost 6 million UK households are struggling to pay their mobile, landline and broadband bills, with the cost of living squeeze forcing many to cut back on essentials such as food and clothes, cancel or change a service, or miss payments to stay connected.

A report from the consumer group Which? estimates that 5.7 million households have experienced at least one “affordability issue” in April, as cash-strapped homes struggle to cope with soaring bills and other costs.

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CMA investigates sport broadcasters over ‘cartel-like behaviour’

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Watchdog says it suspects possible breaches of competition law around purchase of freelance services

The competition watchdog is investigating possible cartel-like behaviour by sport broadcasters including BT Group, ITV, Sky and IMG Media, which includes Premier League Productions, around the purchase of freelance services.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it believes there are “reasonable grounds to suspect one or more breaches of competition law”.

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Number of scam calls to Australian phones cut by half while text message crypto scams soar

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Communications industry peak body and watchdog sees telcos block more than 549m scam calls since inception of code

Phone scam calls have halved since this time last year, data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch shows, but other investment frauds – including on social media and via text messages – have soared over the same time period.

The Reducing Scam Calls code was introduced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) in December 2020. It has seen telcos block over 549m scam calls since its inception.

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Canada to ban Huawei and ZTE from 5G network, risking China tensions

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Move brings Ottawa into line with intelligence allies that have excluded Chinese tech firms from cutting-edge phone networks

Canada says it will ban Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G network, a move that puts it in line with intelligence-sharing allies, but risks further chilling relations with China.

The federal government made the announcement on Thursday afternoon after signalling for months it intended to block China’s flagship telecommunications companies from accessing 5G networks in Canada.

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BT unveil plans to make EE its consumer-facing brand

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British telecommunications giant says company will now take back seat as it makes EE its flagship

It’s still good to talk but increasingly BT customers are doing it wherever they like via connected mobile devices, rather than fixed line broadband and old-fashioned telephones.

In recognition of this generational shift, BT quietly announced in a blog post on Wednesday that after more than 30 years and some of the UK’s highest-profile ad campaigns, its flagship consumer brand is to take a back seat to upstart EE in its marketing strategy.

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Union rejects pay rise of £1,500 for BT staff and plans strike ballot

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CWU bosses say increase is relative cut in salary but BT says it is its biggest award in two decades

BT has given 58,000 workers a £1,500 pay rise that it says is its biggest award in two decades, despite its largest union rejecting the deal and saying it intends to ballot members over strike action.

Last week BT had a £1,200 pay rise offer rejected by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, with union bosses describing it as “insulting” and a “relative pay cut” as soaring inflation fuels a cost of living crisis.

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Telstra buyout of Digicel’s Pacific mobile networks threatened by ‘discriminatory’ new PNG tax

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The $100m tax on companies controlling more than 40% of market is ‘arbitrary’ and ‘perplexing’, says telco Digicel

Digicel Group says it is considering legal options after Papua New Guinea imposed a $100m tax that the telecoms firm said had potential “implications” for the planned AU$2.1bn ($1.57bn) sale of the Pacific’s biggest mobile network to Australia’s Telstra.

Telstra Corp Ltd said last October that it would buy the Pacific operations of Digicel in a deal largely funded by the Australian government, seen by observers as a way to block China’s rising influence in the region. The operations include 2.5m mobile phone subscribers across PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru.

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Ericsson admits breaking DoJ deal over Iraq corruption claims

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Telecoms group’s admission comes days after revelations about alleged bribes given to Islamic State

The Swedish telecoms group Ericsson broke a formal agreement with US prosecutors by withholding evidence about its involvement in corruption, the firm has announced.

The US Department of Justice had notified Ericsson that the firm has failed, as required, to hand over details of alleged corruption in Iraq to DoJ prosecutors.

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Revealed: leaked files show how Ericsson allegedly helped bribe Islamic State

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Telecoms giant’s internal investigators uncover allegations it was involved in corruption in at least 10 countries

Confidential documents have revealed how the telecoms giant Ericsson is alleged to have helped pay bribes to the Islamic State terrorist group in order to continue selling its services after the militants seized control of large parts of Iraq.

The leak of internal investigations at Ericsson, which also found that the firm had put its contractors at risk and allowed them to be kidnapped by the militants, is potentially damaging for the multinational.

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Lebanon faces ‘depressing’ Christmas as internet crisis stops festive calls

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With telecoms barely working, a plunging currency and young people emigrating, it’s a bleak Christmas for weary Lebanese

In Lebanon’s year of loss and deprivation, simple pleasures have steadily drained away along with its fortunes. But amid a crisis renowned for breaking new ground, few Lebanese had thought their ability to stay in touch was at risk – until a pre-Christmas warning sent shudders through the country.

The telecommunications minister, Johnny Corm, warned this week that a lack of funds and fuel could soon see Lebanon’s already struggling internet grind to a halt, making festive calls and messages even trickier than usual – and a financial and social disintegration like no other even more acute.

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At least 13 phone firms hit by suspected Chinese hackers since 2019, say experts

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LightBasin hackers were able to obtain subscriber information and call metadata, says CrowdStrike

At least 13 phone companies around the world have been compromised since 2019 by sophisticated hackers who are believed to come from China, a cybersecurity expert group has said.

The roaming hackers – known as LightBasin – were able to “search and find” individual mobile phones and “target accordingly”, according to CrowdStrike, a group regularly cited by western intelligence.

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Squid Game’s success reopens who pays debate over rising internet traffic

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Demand for capacity grows on back of hit Netflix shows, online games and more

The breakout success of the South Korean drama Squid Game has prompted a local broadband provider to launch legal action to force the maker, Netflix, to help pay for the huge surge in traffic, the latest flashpoint in the argument over who should carry the burden of the spiralling costs of data fuelled by the global streaming boom.

From Netflix’s latest global sensation and livestreamed Premier League football matches on Amazon Prime Video, to bandwidth-busting traffic when hit online games such as Fortnite or Call of Duty are updated, the demand for internet capacity has undergone unprecedented growth in recent years.

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Vodafone to reintroduce roaming fees for UK customers in Europe

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Provider joins EE in bringing back charges for people to use their phone in mainland Europe from next year

Vodafone is to reintroduce charges for UK customers who use their phones in Europe, despite Britain’s biggest mobile companies previously saying that they would not bring back roaming costs after Brexit.

Vodafone said new customers and those upgrading will have to pay up to £2 a day to use their monthly allowance of data, calls and text messages in mainland Europe.

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Eutelsat Quantum: breakthrough reprogrammable satellite launches

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Transmission beams can be reconfigured from the ground, whereas most commercial satellites are hard-wired before launch

The world’s first commercial fully reprogrammable satellite has been launched, ushering in a new era of more flexible communications.

Unlike conventional models that are designed and “hard-wired” on Earth and cannot be repurposed once in orbit, the UK-engineered Eutelsat Quantum allows users to tailor it almost in real-time.

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Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

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Chinese firm could have been monitoring calls of KPN’s 6.5m users without its knowledge, report claims

The Chinese telecoms equipment supplier Huawei was able to monitor all calls made on one of the Netherlands’ largest mobile phone networks, according to a confidential report seen by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

The report, made for KPN by the Capgemini consultancy firm in 2010, concluded that the Chinese company could have been monitoring the calls of the provider’s 6.5m users without the Dutch company’s knowledge, according to the newspaper.

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Iain Duncan Smith calls for review of Chinese investment in UK

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Former Conservative leader says government should assess China’s influence in areas from 5G to Covid-19 research

Chinese ownership of British businesses should be subject to a national security review by the UK government to assess the impact of Beijing’s growing economic power, according to the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.

The senior backbencher – a leading figure in the rebellion that forced Downing Street to introduce tougher controls on Huawei – believes ministers have failed to deal with the scale of China’s influence on strategic industries in the UK.

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Huawei to be stripped of role in UK’s 5G network by 2027, Dowden confirms

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U-turn puts Boris Johnson on collision course with Tory rebels on timing of ban

Huawei is to be stripped out of Britain’s 5G phone networks by 2027, a date that puts Boris Johnson on collision course with a group of Conservative rebels who want the Chinese company eliminated quicker and more comprehensively.

Oliver Dowden, the UK culture secretary, also announced that no new Huawei 5G kit can be bought after 31 December this year – but disappointed the rebels by saying that older 2G, 3G and 4G kit can remain until it is no longer needed.

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BT and Vodafone told to stock up on Huawei kit over US sanctions

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Security officials fear UK telcos could run out of vital parts if US pressure disrupts supplies

British security officials have told telecoms operators to ensure they have adequate stockpiles of Huawei equipment owing to fears that US sanctions will disrupt the Chinese firm’s ability to maintain critical supplies, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Senior officials at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), who are studying the impact of new US measures intended to restrict Huawei’s ability to source advanced microchips, wrote to BT and Vodafone last week, said three people familiar with the matter.

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Mobile phone industry explores worldwide tracking of users

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Talks about global data-sharing to counter coronavirus will raise privacy concerns

The mobile phone industry has explored the creation of a global data-sharing system that could track individuals around the world, as part of an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The Guardian has learned that a senior official at GSMA, an international standard-setting body for the mobile phone industry, held discussions with at least one company that is capable of tracking individuals globally through their mobile devices, and discussed the possible creation of a global data-sharing system.

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Power cuts that left Aboriginal people on NT islands with no food were widespread

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Population received no emergency support and scant information during three-day outage in Northern Territory, says resident of one of the areas hit


Telecommunications outages that left Aboriginal people living on islands off the Northern Territory coast without food, fuel and essential supplies for almost three days last week were more widespread than originally reported, fuelling concerns about the network’s ability to support contact with remote communities as fears over coronavirus spread.

Telstra has confirmed the NT mainland communities of Borroloola and Numbulwar were affected by the same outage, while the Cape York community of Kowanyama was also without telecommunications for three days.

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